This New Equation Could Unite The Two Biggest Theories in Physics

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One
of the most stubborn problems in physics today is the fact that our two best
theories to explain the Universe – general relativity and quantum mechanics –
function perfectly well on their own, but as soon as you try to combine them,
the maths just doesn’t work out.

But
a Stanford theoretical physicist has just come up with a new equation that
suggests the key to finally connecting the two could be found in bizarre
spacetime tunnels called wormholes.

The
equation is deceptively simple: ER = EPR.

It’s
not made up of numerical values, but instead represents the names of some key
players in theoretical physics. On the left side of the equation, the ER stands
for Einstein and Nathan Rosen,and
refers to a 1935 paper they wrote together describing wormholes, known
technically as Einstein-Rosen bridges.

On
the right side of the equation, EPR stands for Einstein, Rosen and Boris
Podolsky, who co-wrote another paper that year describing
quantum entanglement. Back
in 2013, physicist Leonard Susskind from Stanford University and Juan
Maldacena from the Institute for Advance Study at Princeton suggested that the
two papers could be describing pretty much the same thing – something that no
one else in the field had previously considered, including Einstein himself.

Now
Susskind is back to discuss the implications if he’s in fact right. But
first, let’s look at the individual parts of this equation. First implied by
Einstein’s theory of general relativity, wormholes are like tunnels between two places in the
Universe.

In
theory, if you fell in one side of a wormhole, you’d appear on the other side
almost instantaneously, even if it happened to be on the exact opposite side of
the Universe. But
wormholes aren’t just portals to another place in the Universe, they’re portals between two times in the
Universe. Like Carl Sagan once said, “You might emerge somewhere else
in space, some when-else in time.”

Quantum entanglement, on the other hand, describes the
way that two particles can interact in such a way that they become inexorably
linked, and essentially ‘share’ an existence. This means that whatever happens
to one particle will directly and instantaneously affect the other – even if
it’s light-years away.

Okay,
now let’s combine the two.

In his new paper, Susskind
proposes a scenario where hypothetical Alice and Bob each take a bunch of
entangled particles – Alice takes one member of each pair, and Bob takes the
other, and they fly off in opposite directions of the Universe in their
hypothetical hypersonic jets.

Once
in their separate positions, Alice and Bob smash their particles together with
such great force, they create two separate black holes. The result, says
Susskind, is two entangled black holes on opposite sides of the Universe,
linked in the middle by a giant wormhole.

“Even
more remarkable … is the possibility that two entangled subatomic particles
alone are themselves somehow connected by a sort of quantum wormhole. Since
wormholes are contortions of spacetime geometry – described by Einstein’s
gravitational equations – identifying them with quantum entanglement would
forge a link between gravity and quantum mechanics.” Siegfried adds.

Is
Susskind right? It’s impossible to say just yet, because while he’s published
his paper on
pre-press website
arXiv.org to be openly scrutinised by his peers, it’s yet to go
through the formal peer-review process.

But,
as Siegfried reports, Susskind isn’t the only one going
down this path. Earlier
this year, a team of Caltech physicists came up with a similar hypothesis
when they attempted to show how changes in quantum states can be
linked to curves in spacetime geometry.

In a blog post describing the hypothesis, one of the
team, Sean M. Carroll, says the most natural relationship between
energy and spacetime curvature in this scenario is given by Einstein’s equation
for general relativity.

“The
claim, in its most dramatic-sounding form, is that gravity (spacetime curvature
caused by energy/momentum) isn’t hard to obtain in quantum mechanics – it’s
automatic! Or at least, the most natural thing to expect,” he says.

We’ll
have to wait and see if ER = EPR or something closely related bears out, but
it’s certainly food for thought, and Susskind for one thinks he’s on to
something here.

“To
me it seems obvious that if ER = EPR is true, it is a very big deal, and it
must affect the foundations and interpretation of quantum mechanics,” he writes, adding
that if he’s right, “quantum mechanics and gravity are far more tightly related
than we (or at least I) had ever imagined”.